From 4 December 2024, the Humboldt Forum will be presenting an interdisciplinary lecture series on the Humboldt Forum’s annual theme with Janet Carsten, Tatjana Thelen, Daniel Tyradellis and others. At first glance, family seems to be a self-evident, clearly defined topic: (almost) everyone has it – and everyone has it differently! It becomes more complex when the diversity of its interpretations and lived forms becomes apparent. It quickly becomes clear that “family” has not always meant the same thing at all times. The interdisciplinary lecture series Beziehungsweise Familie, with well-known British cultural anthropologist Janet Carsten and German social anthropologist Tatjana Thelen, among others, explores the concept of family and asks about alternatives from a global perspective. The lecture series is a prelude to the themed year of the same name at the Humboldt Forum from September 2025 with a major special exhibition, interventions in the permanent exhibitions, artistic positions throughout the building, events, mediation and educational programs.
Image above: © Robert Clark / Unsplash.
Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights presents the family as the natural basic unit of society. But how is this togetherness structured? And what does it mean to be related to one another – in different times and cultures? In the lecture series Beziehungsweise Familie, renowned academics present current research for discussion that deals with family and kinship concepts from different perspectives – from the supposedly phased-out family model to its political significance and digital kinship.
The interdisciplinary lecture series is the prelude to the Humboldt Forum’s theme year of the same name, which starts in fall 2025. The topic of family relationships will be addressed in all of the museum’s exhibition areas, in educational and outreach activities and in the program of events – from ethnological, cultural, artistic, scientific and (urban) historical perspectives.
In addition to a special exhibition on the first floor, the exhibitions of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Stadtmuseum, the Museum Knoblauchhaus and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin present the diversity of aspects of family in a German, European and intercultural context in individual interventions. Contemporary works of art in the museum also explored the theme of family in a variety of ways.
The lecture series takes place in the Humboldt Forum as part of a cooperation of the institutional network.
One house, four players: the polyphony is already inherent in the cooperation between the partners. The Humboldt Forum brings together the Humboldt Forum Foundation in the Berlin Palace, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation with the collections of the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art of the National Museums in Berlin, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin with the Humboldt Laboratory, Kulturprojekte Berlin and the Stadtmuseum Berlin with the Berlin Exhibition.
Programmatic management of the cross-institutional cluster: Laura Goldenbaum
Content concept: Alia Rayyan
Organization: Paul Timo Kaemmerer
WHEN?
Dates and information about the series:
Wednesday, December 4, 2024, 6-8 p.m.
Family – (K)a discontinued model?
with Daniel Tyradellis (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik, Berlin)
Wednesday, December 11, 2024, 6-8 p.m.
Digital kinship: Memes as a link in the culture of digitality for people of primary school age and older
with Petra Anders (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute for Educational Sciences)
Wednesday, January 8, 2025, 6-8 p.m.
Family, Care, State: Ideals of Belonging and Practices of Exclusion
with Tatjana Thelen (University of Vienna, Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology)
Wednesday, January 22, 2025, 6-8 p.m.
Work and family life: Demography and inequality in focus
with Anette Fasang (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute for Social Sciences)
Wednesday, February 5, 2025, 6-8 p.m.
(Missing) Intersections of Social Inequality and Population Research: A Call for Further Study
with Andrés F. Castro (Center for Demographic Studies, Barcelona)
Wednesday, April 16, 2025, 6-8 p.m.
Family and other forms of cohabitation in urban India
with Nadja-Christina Schneider (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute for Asian and African Studies)
Wednesday, May 14, 2025, 6-8 p.m.
The Creativity of Kinship
with Janet Carsten (School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh)
Wednesday, May 28, 2025, 6-8 Uhr
Becoming related: The emergence of kinship in the indigenous Amazon
with Aparecida Vilaca (Graduate Programme in Social Anthropology, National Museum, São Paulo)
WHERE?
Humboldt Forum
Schloßplatz
10178 Berlin
